Almost all MF majors gain assets in Dec quarter

A majority of fund houses in the country saw their average assets under management (AUM) rise in the October-December quarter.

This was thanks to a rally in the stock markets and incremental allocation in the debt segment, be it gilt funds or other debt mutual fund products, helping the struggling sector see a rise in assets.

Among the top five companies, ICICI MF and Birla Sun Life MF saw their assets rise at the fastest pace. The former’s jumped 6.5 per cent and Birla's grew 5.5 per cent. Reliance MF, the country’s second largest asset management company, managed an asset growth of five per cent.

HDFC MF, top in terms of AUM after dethroning Reliance from the slot in September 2011, hit the Rs 1 lakh crore mark again during the quarter. Data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) show HDFC's AUM at Rs 101,392 crore, up 3.7 per cent against the immediate previous quarter. Before this, on two occasions, the fund house had crossed this mark briefly, in November 2009 and May 2010. It could not sustain this and had slipped.

RISE IN ASSETS AUM of top 10 fund houses during December quarter

Fund House

Average AUM (Rs crore)

Change over Jul-Sep quarter (%)

HDFC

1,01,392.53

3.70

Reliance

90,635.82

4.99

ICICI

81,394.21

6.55

Birla Sun Life

76,889.77

5.46

UTI

70,638.14

-0.21

SBI

53,311.26

4.61

Franklin Templeton

40,868.57

4.66

Kotak

31,772.82

4.80

DSP BlackRock

30,837.60

2.01

IDFC

30,001.86

7.13

Compiled by BS Research Bureau Source : Association of Mutual Funds in India

Dhruva Chatterji, senior analyst at Morningstar India, says, “There has been a continuous inflow in the debt segment of the fund industry, which I believe might have fuelled the assets’ rise. In anticipation of rate cuts, investors are positioning themselves more in duration funds.”

The only top fund which lost assets was UTI AMC. Though the fall was marginal at about 20 basis points (a bp is a 0.01 percentage point), no other fund house among the top 10 saw an asset erosion in the December quarter.

SBI MF, seeing a steady rise in its assets, crossed the Rs 50,000 crore mark; its AUM jumped 4.6 per cent from the previous quarter, to Rs 53,311 crore. The biggest losers in the quarter were Daiwa MMF, Edelweiss MF and BNP Paribas MF, which saw their assets decline by 16-32 per cent.